I rented Deconstructing Harry recently and would like to comment on
it. This is Mia Farrow and Woody Allen's last movie together, and it
is also Woody Allen's last great film. Impossible, you might say, for
Farrow is not in it. But she is, dear reader, SHE IS. From the first
frame to the last, Mia Farrow's illuminating shadow pervades every
frame and every scene. If you listen for a minute, I'll explain. I
recently saw this movie for the fourth time and thought a lot about
it because I do think it is a great movie. Since Woody uses the
Deconstructing sense in the title, I think it is not unfair to say
this is an invitation to interpret it as one feels. I will do that.

The very first scenes echo a lot of the Farrow/Allen relationship
from the bat. A woman comes to Max's home to tell him he has revealed
in his writing that he had an affair with her, and she is his ex-
wife's sister, and that his ex-wife knew from the novel what actually
happened and it ruined their relationship. From Farrow's
autobiography, she writes that she suspected her own sister of
carrying on with Woody when she was a stand-in for her on "Midsummer
Night's Sex Comedy." She later said she was very upset when Woody
presented her with the "Hannah" script, because she felt it spelled
out his affection for her sister. She even asked him, for the first
time, not to do the movie and change to something else, because she
was horrified at what she thought was a breach of privacy about their
lives. She said it was too late to change, and they did it, but she
was not happy about it at all. These scenes are terrible in what they
are saying off the screen. It seems Woody is indeed confirming he had
sex with her sister, and not only that, but in one exchange, he said
the ex-wife is so shallow, she doesn't realize her sister hated her.
This whole plotline is so shallowly shaded that there seems to be
little mistake in what he is really saying. Even though it may not be
true, what else could Mia Farrow take from this scene except that
this is what occurred under her nose with her own partner?

Let's talk about another Mia inspired plot. It was either in a court
document, or some media outlet, that it was said that Woody Allen in
court said Mia stopped having relations with him after their child
was born. He also said that Mia had a strange conversion to
Catholicism between the child being born and the Soon-Yi affair. I
think in one funny aside, Woody said Mia never had a religious bone
in her body and then all of a sudden, she's Mother Theresa, or some
funny line. This true-life tale makes it into the movies. In a very
funny scene, a woman has birth, then becomes a hard-core Jewish
Hasidic role model. It's very funny, and very strange. It is sort of
a slam at Mia but it's a funny slam and harmless. It has often been
said that Mia Farrow was bitter that Woody and her never married. It
is my opinion that once Farrow had the child, she no longer cared if
they married or not. Why would she? Marriage would have been anti-
climatic to what she already had- Woody Allen's only biological
child. This places her higher in the pantheon of Woody's paramours
than being a wife would. After all, he had been married twice
before. If given a choice of having Woody's child or getting
married, Mia would probably laugh at you; she got what she wanted.

The most amazing Mia plot in the movie revolves around Woody having
an affair with one of his wife's patients. He takes verbatim dialogue
that was said to have occurred between him and Farrow. It was
reported that Allen told Farrow the reason he reason he was having an
affair with Soon-Yi was because she brought into their "world," and
since he had little contact with others, if he was going to stray, it
had to be with someone in his "world," hence the affair with Soon-Yi
and that Mia was partly responsible because she brought Soon-Yi into
the circle! This is almost the EXACT conversation Max Bloch has with
his wife about his patient. Allen even uses almost the EXACT same
fight words when the wife screams, "You don't fuck the PATIENTS!" Mia
had told Allen in their fight, "I should have told you, YOU DON'T
FUCK THE KIDS." Now, before there is anger towards me for bringing
all this up, Allen himself wrote this film and if comparisons are
made, he obviously didn't care. If he did, he wouldn't put them in. .
Who cannot see the parallel between the situations. In all fairness,
though, when Woody wrote this film, the Court transcripts that Mia
put at the end of her book, and Mia's own admission of several things
like her thoughts about the affair with her sister may not have been
public, so Allen perhaps thought she would be the only one who knew.
But they have been made public, several times by several people, so
it's not a mystery where this stuff is coming from. Although one
can't help but wonder about the hurt that was inflicted on Soon-Yi
watching scenes where Allen admits the "patient" meant nothing to him
but sex and he would go back to the wife. It had to be painful, but
maybe he convinced her it was fiction. Her mother fell for that more
than once.

The scenes with the boy are obvious enough. It does appear Allen
cared deeply about the boy. Their current situation is rather sad,
but perhaps unavoidable. What Allen is trying to accomplish with all
this public revealing, who knows. He himself may not know. It does
superficially appear as if he is saying, ":Yes, I know. I'm a
monster, I'm horrible, I did it all." What is left out of the movie
may even be MORE revealing than what is there to see. The child
molestation charges are NEVER touched upon. For someone who
habitually reveals his personal life in his films, this one
accusation is totally left out. I would think this would be the most
terrible thing in the world to him. I mean, he is accused of
molesting his four-year old adopted child, the person he seemed to
love most in the world, his whole universe when she was with him, and
then he loses her because of the Court case forever, with the Judge
himself stating he was unsure if something inappropriate did not
happen with the child? And yet THIS TERRIBLE INJUSTICE SUPPOSEDLY
DONE TO HIM NEVER SHOWS UP IN HIS MOVIES. It's the most horrible
charge that can be leveled against a man; child molester; and yet
Woody Allen, who has not felt timid to write entire scenes after his
real-life situations, like the ones I have just described, has
remained CURIOUSLY SILENT over this issue. Why? He will espouse
everything else, but not this. Where are the plots of an innocent man
accused of a terrible crime he did not commit? I'll leave that to the
better qualified.
This is a very funny, bawdy, and intelligent film. It's good on it's
own merits, but it's better when it reveals Woody as a confession.
After this film, Woody exorcised his life with Mia from his written
content in his films. He went on to new plots, little that had
resemblance to his years with Mia Farrow and the dimension it opened
up to him creatively. I titled this review Mia's Revenge, and now I
will explain it. In "Husbands and Wives," Allen talks about Mia's
character as a woman who gets what she wants, she does it with
passive/aggressive behavior, but in the end, she triumphs over
everyone. Well, Mia, after the Soon-Yi scandal, actively pursued
Woody's destruction as a brilliant film-maker. In books, interviews,
and press releases, she slowly and aggressively went after him like a
low-crouching tiger waiting for blood. And let me tell you, she got
it. In Spades. The new plots and one-liners after "Harry" slowly
trickled to a horrid pale imitation of what he once achieved. Woody
Allen never recovered his genius after this film. In truth, he seemed
to give up the fight, and his recent disasters "Curse of the Jade
Scorpion" and "Hollywood Ending" have cemented his doom and loss of
powers. He has even lost the ability to be funny on film. How can one
be funny for 30 years and then wake up not funny anymore? Something
terrible had to happen to him mentally to force such an awful prison
sentence onto his brilliantly staggering mind. What happened is a
mystery and perhaps no one will ever know. But what I do know is
that "Deconstructing Harry" is Woody's last great film. Perhaps it's
Mia Farrow's as well.

It is my opinion that when Allen dies, or even before if he becomes a
burden in his older age, Soon-Yi will quickly reconcile with her
mother and rejoin the Farrow fold. Mia will certainly accept her
with open arms. Woody Allen's films are now so bad, Mia would not
want to be in them , even if nothing wrong had ever happened between
them. What once was a source of an actor's pride, a part in a Woody
Allen movie, is now a symbol of embarrassment. Also, in many ways,
Soon-Yi has become her mother these last ten years.. The adopted
children, the marriage with the older celebrity icon, a life strongly
reminiscent of her mother's memories. She may even look upon this
movie and see the indignity that has been placed publicly upon her.
She may re-evaluate the situations that at 20 she saw much
differently than now looking at them through the eyes of a 40 year
old. She may also revisit memories of her little sister and what
exactly happened that day in the attic. It will be a dark day for
Woody Allen when the former Dylan reaches 18 and has a microphone
pushed into her face, whether the memories be real or not. Also,
Woody Allen is 35 years older than Soon-Yi. His increasing
infirmities will produce no laughter. Make no mistake, Soon-Yi will
be back at Frog Hollow.